Use a Clay Extruder to Fill in Polymer Cane Background Spaces

Make Your Flower Canes Stand Out With Translucent Polymer Clay Packing:

Today's topic is about using a Makins Professional Polymer Clay Extruder Gun to pack the spaces between the petals in a flower cane. Once filled, these spaces become the background for your cane.

Translucent clay is often used for filling in the background of a flower cane because it frames the colorful flower petal design with a neutral border. This neutral border is important when you layer cane slices over each other or place them in close proximity on your beads.

If you look carefully at the flower cane in the photo above, you'll see teardrop shaped pieces of translucent polymer clay filling the voids around the outer extremities of the flower petals.

These teardrop pieces of translucent clay were made using a teardrop shaped die in my Makins Professional Clay Extruder. A triangle die would work just as well… maybe even better since triangles are not as 'bulgy'.

By the way, the colors used for making this cane are from the Petunia Color Recipe Palette.

Besides the teardrop shaped packing in the above photo, you should also be able to see 2 thin wrappings of translucent polymer clay. These wraps help to minimize distortion of the flower design when the cane is being reduced.

So next time you are building a polymer clay flower cane, be sure to let your clay extruder lend a helping hand. This versatile tool can be a real time saver.